Election Briefing: Can We Hold a Fair Election?: David Hawkins and Tristiaña Hinton

Let's Find Common Ground

USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future

News, Trump, Opinion, Usc, California, Polls, Debates, Strategists, University, Education, Government, Universitysoutherncalifornia, America, Presidential, Dornsife, Bipartisanship, School, Democrat, Primaries, Elections, Shrum, Primary, News Commentary, Republican, Analysis, General, Polarization, International, Journalists, Federal, Commentary, Election, National, Conversation, Race, Centerpoliticalfuture, Conversations, Murphy, Moderator, Political, Coverage, Biden, Podcast, Politics

5.0 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2020

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

With only weeks to go before the 2020 election, many challenges remain to holding a free and fair vote in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. From likely surge in mail-in ballots, to changes in polling places for millions of voters and the urgent need for accuracy, we discuss whether the election will be a smooth exercise of democracy or result in a constitutional crisis. David Hawkings, Editor-in-Chief and Tristiana Hinton, Audience Development Editor, of The Fulcrum explain America's many different statewide systems of voting, and why it could take days or weeks for winners to be declared. We look at the disputes between Republicans and Democrats, including the possibility of a disputed result, and explore why many local election officials from both parties share common ground on the need for fair and accurate results. The Fulcrum is a non-profit, non-partisan digital news organization focused exclusively on efforts to reverse the dysfunctions plaguing American democracy. The Fulcrum and Common Ground Committee are members of Bridge Alliance, which acts as a connectivity hub for over 90 civic action organizations.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Election 2020 is just weeks away and for some voting has already begun.
0:06.5	North Carolina was the first state to send out absentee ballots in early September. But many challenges remain to holding a free and fair
0:16.6	voting process in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Will this November's election be a smooth exercise of democracy or could
0:26.2	it result in a constitutional crisis? This is Let's Find Common Ground. I'm Ashley Milntight.
0:38.0	And I'm Richard Davies.
0:40.0	In this episode we look at the election itself. What's different this time? Are
0:46.2	there areas of common ground between the two parties? Were useful lessons learned
0:50.6	from the primaries? Will the election results fairly reflect the
0:54.9	wishes of the people? We speak with David Hawking's editor-in-chief and
0:58.8	Tristan Hinton, audience development editor of the Fulcrum, a non-profit online news site that
1:06.8	covers the workings of democracy and attempts to reform it.
1:11.3	We asked David first about the biggest threat to holding a fair election.
1:15.0	This is a more confusing election process than most Americans are used to and the biggest
1:21.6	single threat I think is that Americans will be confused and easily dissuaded
1:27.0	either dissuaded from voting or confused about the rules that apply to them and end up not playing by the rules that abide to them
1:36.2	through no fault of their own and that their vote won't be cast.
1:40.3	And that connected to that is the work that some politicians are doing to discourage people from knowing the rules and to discourage people from playing by the rules.
1:52.0	Obviously one of the biggest controversies of the year has been over mail-in voting.
1:58.0	The president claims there could be massive fraud if many people use mail and voting. Is he right to be concerned?
2:07.8	I would say he's not right to be concerned even if we look at the states that have been doing
2:12.3	mail and voting for their full elections,
2:14.5	there are so few instances of fraud that it's not even something to be considered really.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.